The River Nile Homepage Back to top Geology Why should the river that tumbles out of the Ethiopian highlands and joins the White Nile at Khartoum be called the Blue Nile? It is not particularly blue. Perhaps it should be called the Summer River, because for most of the year it provides little water compared to the White Nile, but in Summer it is very much the dominant tributary. In the summer, winds from the SE bring moist air from the Indian Ocean. This is forced to rise over the Ethiopian Plateau, half of which is over 2 km high; the highest point in Ethiopia - Ras Dejen - is about 4.5 km high. The moist air cools as it rises, and this wrings out the moisture in torrents known as monsoon. Monsoon rains wash the Ethiopian highlands in summer, filling every dry wash that drains down to the Blue Nile. The river itself swells so with water that at the confluence with the White Nile it causes its more sedate partner to dam back on itself. It is this annual flooding of the Blue Nile along with that of the Atbara to the north, which also flows out of the Ethiopian highlands, that caused the Nile to rise each year in Egypt.

It is erosion of the basalt lavas of the Ethiopian highlands that allows the river each year to bring a fresh varnish of black mud to its floodplain. Maybe it should be called the Canyon Nile, because over half of its 800 km course from Lake Tana to Khartoum is through an impenetrable gorge. The canyon over much of its length is over 1500 m deep, just as deep as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in Arizona, U.S.A. Like the Grand Canyon, the Blue Nile Gorge exposes layers of rock laid down over hundreds of millions of years of earth history, with 150 million year old sandstones and limestones sandwiched between 800 million year old granites below and 20 million year old lava flows at the top. In spite of these similarities, the Blue Nile gorge is the more intimidating feature. Within 30 km of its source at Lake Tana the river enters a canyon which it does not leave for 400 km. This gorge is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half.

There is another difference between the two rivers: many people enjoy the raft ride down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, but no one has ever floated down the Blue Nile and lived to brag about it. Another possible name would be the Lost Nile. The traditional source of the Blue Nile is a spring which feeds the Little Abbai, a stream which flows NE into Lake Tana. Lake Tana itself lies at an elevation of a little over 1800 m and was formed when a young lava flow blocked the river, flooding a shallow depression. The river has cut through this barrier, flowing to the SE. As the river cuts deeper into its gorge, it slowly turns south, then SW, then W. Finally, as it leaves the great canyon, it turns to NNW to meet with its sister stream at Khartoum. The course of the stream thus turns 270 degrees from start to finish. nbsp; A Bit of History In Arabic the Blue Nile is called 'Al Bahr al-Azraq' while the Ethiopians call it the 'Abbai'. The numerous names given to the river reflect the river's complex history involving the river, the people who make their livelihood from it, and those who were determined to rule it.

It would be impossible to tell the history of all of the people and tribes that have lived along the Nile in the space of this small site, and readers are encouraged to look for books with a more detailed account. A bit of history from the headwaters in Ethiopia and the Nile cities in Sudan follow. One very notable event for the people who lived along the Nile, both the Blue and White, is the invasion and conquest of the area by a somewhat mysterious group of warriors in the 1600's. Sennar, Sudan was chosen as the capital and the kingdom they established was called the Fung Empire. It stretched from the Red Sea to beyond the barrier of the White Nile. This kingdom collapsed in 1821 to an invasion of a Turkish army from Egypt. The new rulers established a capital at the place where the Blue and White Niles join in Sudan: El Kartoum. El Kartoum means elephant�s trunk, an appropriate description of the shape of the river at the point. Time went on and conquerors came and went but the city of Kartoum survived in one form or another.

The first European to see the Blue Nile in Ethiopia is reported to be a Portuguese priest in the early 1600's. It took almost another 360 years before the gorge of the Nile was completely mapped by the West. The priest had a hard time trying to spread his teachings in Ethiopia. The country is home to many different religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The Christians of Ethiopia, however, are mainly Coptic Christians, a branch that originated in Egypt. Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest lake very near the origin of the Blue Nile, is dotted with a wide mix of churches from many different centuries even including a Roman Catholic church built by the Portuguese priest in 1621. The numerous churches have long been used to store important artworks and relics because of the Lake's remote location. In fact, the Arc of the Covenant is rumored to be or have been stored on one of the 37 islands in the lake making Lake Tana one among the many locations the holy relic is thought to be stored. Back to top Demands on the River The Blue Nile is vital to the livelihood of Egypt. Almost 60% of the water that reaches Egypt originates from the Blue Nile branch of the great river.

This water is a result of the monsoonal rains over Ethiopia. The river is also an important resource for Sudan where dams produce 80% of the country's power as well as irrigation for the Gezira Plain, a project delivering water to over 2 million acres. Originally build in 1925, the project was operated by a private company in conjunction with the ruling British government. The Sudanese gained independence in 1956 and the project became nationalized at about the same time. The Gezira Plain is most famous for the production of its high quality cotton, but it also produces wheat, and animal feed crops dominate the production of this vast yet rich nationalized farmland. Nile Confluence - Confluence of the white and blue Nile in Khartoum, Sudan - YouTube Nile Confluence - Confluence of the white and blue Nile in Khartoum, Sudan Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Dec 2, 2012 Countries at Risk - Sudan Sudan The maps of Sudan's transboundary river basins are defined by: Country of Sudan International extent of Sudan's transboundary basins Sudan's Geospatial Resilience Analysis Sudan Background Summary Sudan, contains 5 transboundary shared basins, is 96% dependent on internationally shared water resources, and has not seen political stability in decades. Sudan is located in the Nile Valley of North Africa and has a history of violence associated with the dominating presence of the National Islamic Front, legally represented by the National Congress Party under the reign of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir. This country has been included in our study as a Country at Risk because of its persistent occurrence on global indices, its dependency on water outside of its country border, and the continuous presence of national and international conflict. Introduction Adjacent to the Red Sea, Sudan shares its border with South Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, and Central African Republic. Sudan contains 5 transboundary water basins including 43.1% of the Nile basin.

Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, is located at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile flows from South Sudan and the Blue Nile flows from Ethiopia; the two tributaries converge in Sudan to flow north to Egypt. 78% of the country’s territory is covered in transboundary water basins, a significant statistic given that Sudan is part of the southern boundary of the Saharan Desert. After being under joint British-Egyptian rule for more than 50 years, Sudan gained its independence in 1956. The first Civil War broke out in 1955 between the Sudanese government and southern rebels. President Jaafar Nimeiri’s decision to introduce Sharia law ignited a second Civil War. Lasting from 1983 until 2005, the war ended when the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The agreement established a high degree of autonomy in southern Sudan, but South Sudan’s full independence was not official until July of 2011.

In 1989, in the midst of the second Civil War, former army commander General Omar al-Bashir seized power through a military coup ( Sudan’s current legal system is a mix of Islamic law and English common law under the presidency of al-Bashir (CIA). The National Congress Party, established from its predecessor, the National Islamic Front, has been recognized as the governing body of Sudan since the mid 1990s. President al-Bashir was re-elected in 2010, and is currently the National Congress Party’s nominal leader ( Sudan is situated in northeast Africa and is part of the southern boundary of the Saharan Desert. The vast majority of the country is in dry, desert climate zones, with southern wetlands and tropical climates beginning along the border shared with South Sudan. With an area of 1,853,564 square kilometers, Sudan is currently home to 37.97 million people (Columbia U) and the population is growing at a rate of 1.78% (CIA).

Sudanese Arabs make up 70% of Sudan’s population, and the remaining 30% consist of Fur, Beja, Nuba, and Fallata. Arabic and English are the official languages of Sudan; other languages include Nubian, Ta Bedawie, and Fur (CIA). ***note: program of "Arabization" in process (CIA). The two major religious sects in Sudan are Islam, 71%, and Animism, 20%; Christianity, nonreligious peoples, and other religions make up the remaining 9% (COW). Seventy-eight percent of Sudan’s land area, or 1,451,754 square kilometers, lies in 5 different international river basins: the Nile, Lake Chad, Baraka, and Gash (TFDD). 43.1% of the Nile River Basin lies in Sudan (TFDD). Agriculture Of the 852,639 square kilometers of agricultural land in Sudan (WB), 129,749 square kilometers are considered to be arable and only 18,900 square kilometers are irrigated (CIA).

The main crops of Sudan include cotton, oil seeds, Gum Arabic, sugar, sorghum, millet, and wheat (FAO- CIA). Cotton production began in Sudan under British rule; after its agricultural success in Egypt, the Gezira Scheme encouraged its growth south of the White Nile and Blue Nile confluence ( Al Jazirah, meaning “land between the rivers,” is the area of land south of Khartoum between the White and Blue Nile as they begin to converge. ( The Gezira Scheme is the first and largest irrigation endeveaour in Sudan ( In the vertisols of the Gezira region, agricultural issues relating to poor infiltration and internal drainage lead to their resistance to soil improvement ( In Northern Sudan, north of Khartoum, issues of soil salinity are of greater importance, limiting the potential for further development ( Water Resources Sudan has 37.8 billion cubic meters per year actual renewable resources (FAO) and a total of 37.1 billion cubic meters of annual freshwater withdrawals (WB). This implies that Sudan is withdrawing 71% (FAO) of its renewable water resources annually. Sudan has a dependency ratio of 96% (FAO).

Water Legal History of the Nile Basin Economics Export partners of Sudan Import partners of Sudan (CIA, 2012): United Arab Emirates 63.2% Macau 18.1% Saudi Arabia 9.2% India 8.8% Ethiopia 5.3% Saudi Arabia 7.9% Egypt 6.7% United Arab Emirates 5.2% Sudan’s gross domestic product was $66.55 billion in 2013 (WB). Sudan is the world’s largest exporter of gum Arabic, producing 75-80% of global output. Agriculture employs 80% of the work force in Sudan. Continuation of conflict in Southern Kordofan, Darfur, and the Blue Nile states, lack of basic infrastructure, and reliance on subsistence agriculture are all factors in a high level of poverty amongst the Sudanese; 47% of the population are considered to be below the poverty line (WB) Sudan lost three quarters of its oil production when South Sudan seceded in 2011.

Conflict Sudan’s history is drenched in conflict beginning with the First Sudanese Civil War (1955 - 1972) and Second Sudanese Civil War (1983 - 2005). In July of 2011, South Sudan was formally declared an independent country, although conflict between the two continues on a smaller, less publicized scale. Current conflicts are constantly occurring in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile, but awareness in the eye of the international audience comes and goes. Sudan Current Events Analysis Method: Google search 12 events events search limit: 2000- 2014 earliest: 2003 newest: 2014 Themes: Bombing and chasing out of international aid. Interstate war and conflict with government, rebel, civilians. Civil war resulting in South Sudan independence. Attempts for cooperative agreements and initiatives with countries in Nile basin. Increasing rate of infrastructure construction. Desertification. *Political: Overall instability and intrastate conflict and with South Sudan. Sudan historically aligned with Egypt politically in Nile basin context. *Water: Development in infrastructure on Nile.

Quality issues for disease, lack of infrastructure, reliance on surface water. Decrease productivity in agriculture due to water scarcity. Quotes Food Scarcity Theme: “Modelled predictions of a future 70 percent drop in food production in Northern Kordofan have actually already taken place on a smaller scale and on a short-term and local basis, due to reduced rainfall and ongoing land degradation and abandonment. This trend is expected to worsen with time and the predicted result is that in the absence of major changes in agricultural patterns, food insecurity will only increase in these regions.” (UNEP 2006) Desertification/Soil Degradation Theme: “The desert and semi-desert boundaries are expected to continue to shift southwards due to declining precipitation/reliability of precipitation .” (UNEP 2006) Bombing of International Aid Facilities Theme: Dr. Tom Catena stated, “They want us to go away, they want to kill everybody here, and they want to destroy any sort of infrastructure that’s here.” “They know the hospital is important for the people, they want to demoralize everybody, they want to drive everybody out of here.

So they want to destroy us so they can drive us away,” he added. “This is the only thing that makes any sense; there’s nothing militarily here. There’s no military objective to destroying this place.” (Radio Tamazuj 2014) War in Darfur Theme: When Kaltam heard the sound of fighting early that morning, she took her children and ran. "We start running near the well," she said. "We hid behind a big rock. Something that looks like an eagle started coming from over there. It looked like an eagle but it made a funny noise." When the plane unleashed two bombs Kaltam's five-year-old daughter, Nura, was dismembered from the chest up. (Andersson 2008) References: Andersson, Hilary. 2008. China is fueling war in Darfur. BBC News, Darfur. 13 July 2008. Retrieved September 2014. Radio Tamazuj. 2014. Video: Sudan warplane bombs hospital in Nuba Mountains. Retrieved September 2014. UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme). 2006.

Sudan Post-conflict Environmental Assessment. Natural Disasters and Desertification. Retrieved September 2014. Two Niles Meet : Image of the Day acquired April 26, 2013 download large image (4 MB, JPEG, 2929x4000) acquired April 26, 2013 download GeoTIFF file (22 MB, TIFF) Though it moves just a tiny fraction of the water carried by the Amazon, Congo, or Niger rivers, the Nile is the world’s longest river. Its main tributaries—the White Nile and the Blue Nile—meet in Khartoum, Sudan, a rain-poor city of nearly 2 million residents that relies on the Nile for irrigation. Well-watered crops line the river banks, and patchworks of croplands (including center-pivot irrigated fields) dot the city’s outskirts. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this natural-color image on April 26, 2013, near the end of the region’s dry season.

Compared to the White Nile, the Blue Nile is skinny and its highly variable flow is near its lowest point at this time of year. Harsh dry seasons and droughts can periodically dry out the Blue Nile completely. The White Nile and Blue Nile derive their colors from the sediments they carry. Originating in the Equatorial Lakes region, the White Nile is rich in light gray sediments. As this long river meanders over flat terrain, it loses over half of its water to evaporation. Shorter than the White Nile, the Blue Nile starts in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, picking up black sediment en route to Khartoum. The Blue Nile is fed by monsoon rains, and when rains are abundant, the Blue Nile can actually flow backward near its confluence with the White Nile. Upstream from both rivers, residents rely largely on precipitation for farming. Most of the water extraction along the Nile occurs in Sudan and Egypt, where rainfall is too sparse to support crops. More than 120 millio people rely upon Nile waters for irrigation and other uses. References UNESCO (2008, January) Sediment in the Nile River System. Accessed May 9, 2013.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott. Instrument(s): Nile Nile Name origin: "Nile"( Arabic : 'nīl) comes from the Greek word Neilos (Νειλος) Countries 3,400,000 km² (1,312,747 sq mi) Discharge - average 2,830 m³/ s (99,941 cu ft/ s) The Nile ( Arabic : النيل‎, transliteration: an-nīl, Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa , generally regarded as the longest river in the world. The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and fertile soil, but the former being the longer of the two.

The White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source in southern Rwanda , and flows north from there through Tanzania , Lake Victoria , Uganda and southern Sudan , while the Blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia , flowing into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital Khartoum . The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert , from Sudan into Egypt , a country whose civilization has depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population of Egypt and all of its cities, with the exception of those near the coast, lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan; and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along the banks of the river. The Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea . Etymology of the word Nile Nile seen from Spot Satellite The word "Nile"( Arabic : 'nīl) comes from Greek Neilos (Νειλος), meaning river valley, and likely borrowed from Phoenician.

In the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥ'pī or iteru, meaning "great river", represented by the hieroglyphs shown on the right (literally itrw). In Coptic, the words piaro (Sahidic) or phiaro (Bohairic) meaning "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great") come from the same ancient name. Tributaries and distributaries The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometres (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa. There are two great tributaries of the Nile, joining at Khartoum : the White Nile, starting in equatorial East Africa , and the Blue Nile, beginning in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift, the southern part of the Great Rift Valley . Below the Blue and White Nile confluence the only remaining major tributary is the Atbara River, which originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, and is around 800 kilometres (500 mi) long.

It flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very fast. It joins the Nile approximately 300 kilometres (200 mi) north of Khartoum. The Nile is unusual in that its last tributary (the Atbara) joins it roughly halfway to the sea. From that point north, the Nile diminishes because of evaporation. The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over 6 groups of cataracts, from the first at Aswan to the sixth at Sabaloka (just north of Khartoum) and then turns to flow southward for a good portion of its course, before again returning to flow north to the sea. This is called the "Great Bend of the Nile." East Africa, showing the course of the Nile River, with the "Blue" and "White" Niles marked in those colours North of Cairo , the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta. White Nile The Blue Nile Falls fed by Lake Tana near the city of Bahar Dar, Ethiopia forms the upstream of the Blue Nile.

It is also known as Tis Issat Falls after the name of the nearby village. The source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria , but the lake itself has feeder rivers of considerable size. The most distant stream—and thus the ultimate source of the Nile—emerges from Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, via the Rukarara, Mwogo, Nyabarongo and Kagera rivers, before flowing into Lake Victoria in Tanzania near the town of Bukoba. The Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda, as the Victoria Nile. It flows for approximately 500 kilometres (300 mi) farther, through Lake Kyoga, until it reaches Lake Albert. After leaving Lake Albert, the river is known as the Albert Nile. It then flows into Sudan, where it becomes known as the Bahr al Jabal ("River of the Mountain"). The Bahr al Ghazal, itself 716 kilometres (445 mi) long, joins the Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No, after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad, or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters.

When the Nile flooded it left this rich material named silt. The Ancient Egyptians used this soil to farm. From Lake No, the river flows to Khartoum. An anabranch river called Bahr el Zeraf flows out of the Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile. The term "White Nile" is used in both a general sense, referring to the entire river above Khartoum, and a limited sense, the section between Lake No and Khartoum. Blue Nile The Blue Nile ( Ge'ez ጥቁር ዓባይ Ṭiqūr ʿĀbbāy (Black Abay) to Ethiopians ; Bahr al Azraq to Sudanese) springs from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the "Nile proper".

90% of the water and 96% of the transported sediment carried by the Nile originates in Ethiopia, with 59% of the water from the Blue Nile alone (the rest being from the Tekezé, Atbarah, Sobat, and small tributaries). The erosion and transportation of silt only occurs during the Ethiopian rainy season in the summer, however, when rainfall is especially high on the Ethiopian Plateau; the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile (Sobat, Blue Nile, Tekezé, and Atbarah) flow weakly. Lost headwaters Formerly Lake Tanganyika drained northwards along the African Rift Valley into the Albert Nile, making the Nile about 900 miles (1,400 km) longer, until blocked in Miocene times by the bulk of the Virunga Volcanoes. See List of rivers by length. Politics Composite satellite image of the White Nile (see also the Nile delta) The usage of the Nile River has been vastly associated with East and horn of African politics for many decades. Various countries, including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have complained about the Egyptian domination of the Nile water resources.

The Nile Basin Initiative was one of the most important programs to promote equal usage and peaceful cooperation between the "Nile Basin States." Yet many fear, the Egyptian domination of the waters still causes massive economic obstacles in the area. The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by cataracts, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by boats . The Sudd wetlands in Sudan also forms a formidable obstacle for navigation and flow of water, to the extent that Sudan had once attempted to dig a canal (the Jonglei Canal) to bypass this stagnant mass of water. The Nile was, and still is, used to transport goods to different places along its long path; especially since winter winds in this area blow up river, the ships could travel up with no work by using the sail, and down using the flow of the river.

While most Egyptians still live in the Nile valley, the construction of the Aswan High Dam (finished in 1970) to provide hydroelectricity ended the summer floods and their renewal of the fertile soil. Cities on the Nile include Khartoum, Aswan, Luxor ( Thebes), and the Giza – Cairo conurbation. The first cataract, the closest to the mouth of the river, is at Aswan to the north of the Aswan Dams. The Nile north of Aswan is a regular tourist route, with cruise ships and traditional wooden sailing boats known as feluccas. In addition, many "floating hotel" cruise boats ply the route between Luxor and Aswan, stopping in at Edfu and Kom Ombo along the way. It used to be possible to sail on these boats all the way from Cairo to Aswan, but security concerns have shut down the northernmost portion for many years. More recently, drought during the 1980s led to widespread starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan but Egypt was protected from drought by water impounded in Lake Nasser.

Beginning in the 1980s techniques of analysis using hydrology transport models have been used in the Nile to analyze water quality. Hydrology The Nile makes its way through the Sahara The flow rate of the Albert Nile at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m³/s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Nile is known as the Bahr El Jebel which enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region of Sudan. More than half of the Nile’s water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration. The average flow rate in the Bahr El Jebel at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m³/s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it soon meets with the Sobat River and forms the White Nile. The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of drainage area and discharge.

The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometres (200,000 sq mi) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m³/s (71 cu ft/s) annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km² (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic metres per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to the Nile. When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's colour.

The average flow of the White Nile at Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m³/s (32,600 cu ft/s), the peak flow is approximately 1,218 m³/s (43,000 cu ft/s) in early March and minimum flow is about 609 m³/s (21,500 cu ft/s) in late August. The fluctuation there is due the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat which has a minimum flow of about 99 m³/s (3,500 cu ft/s) in August and a peak flow of over 680 m³/s (24,000 cu ft/s) in early March. From here the White Nile flows to Khartoum where it merges with the Blue Nile to form the Nile River. Further downstream the Atbara River, the last significant Nile tributary, merges with the Nile. During the dry season (January to June) the White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile.

During this period of time the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as 113 m³/s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the dry period, there will typically be no flow from the Atbara River. The Blue Nile contributes approximately 80-90% of the Nile River discharge. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During the wet season the peak flow of the Blue Nile will often exceed 5,663 m³/s (200,000 cu ft/s) in latter August (variation by a factor of 50). Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by a factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m³/s (290,000 cu ft/s) would occur during the later portions of August and early September and minimum flows of about 552 m³/s (19,500 cu ft/s) would occur during later April and early May.

The Nile basin is complex, and because of this, the discharge at any given point along the mainstem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation/ evapotranspiration, and groundwater flow. History The confluence of the Kagera and Ruvubu rivers near Rusumo Falls, part of the Nile's upper reaches. The Nile (iteru in Ancient Egyptian) was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age . Climate change, or perhaps overgrazing, desiccated the pastoral lands of Egypt to form the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and a more centralized society . The river Nile froze twice in recorded history, in 829 and 1010. The Eonile The present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands. Satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile.

An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the Eonile that flowed during the later Miocene (23–5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments. During the late-Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment. Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern Zambia . The integrated Nile There are two theories in relation to the age of the integrated Nile.

The first one is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age, that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly (the Proto Nile basin) feeding a river following the present course of the Nile in Egypt and in the far north of the Sudan. Said (1981) stresses the fact that Egypt itself supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile and the Atbara/ Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times. Salama (1987) suggested that during the Tertiary there were a series of separate closed continental basins, each basin occupying one of the major Sudanese Rift System: Mellut Rift, White Nile Rift, Blue Nile Rift, Atbara Rift and Sag El Naam Rift. The Mellut Rift Basin is nearly 12 km deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamps which forms the central part of the Basin is possibly still subsiding.

The White Nile Rift System, although shallower than Bahr El Arab, is about 9 km deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9 km. These basins were not interconnected except after their subsidence ceased and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill up the basins to such a level that would allow connection to take place. The filling up of the depressions led to the connection of the Egyptian Nile with the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial head waters during the latest stages of tectonic activities of Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift Systems. The connection of the different Niles occurred during the cyclic wet periods. The River Atbara overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods which occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years B.P. The Blue Nile was connected to the main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile some 12,500 years B.P.

Role in the founding of Egyptian civilization Reconstruction of the Oikoumene (inhabited world) ancient map based on Herodotus ' description of the world, circa 450 BCE. Sustenance played a crucial role in the founding of Egyptian civilization. The Nile is an unending source of sustenance. The Nile made the land surrounding it extremely fertile when it flooded or was inundated annually. The Egyptians were able to cultivate wheat and crops around the Nile, providing food for the general population. Also, the Nile’s water attracted game such as water buffalo ; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels . These animals could be killed for meat, or could be captured, tamed and used for ploughing — or in the camels' case, travelling. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient way of transportation for people and goods. Dhows on the Nile The structure of Egypt’s society made it one of the most stable in history. In fact, it might easily have surpassed many modern societies. This stability was an immediate result of the Nile’s fertility. The Nile also provided flax for trade.

Wheat was also traded, a crucial crop in the Middle East where famine was very common. This trading system secured the diplomatic relationship Egypt had with other countries, and often contributed to Egypt's economic stability. Also, the Nile provided the resources such as food or money, to quickly and efficiently raise an army for offensive or defensive roles. The Nile played a major role in politics and social life. The pharaoh would supposedly flood the Nile, and in return for the life-giving water and crops, the peasants would cultivate the fertile soil and send a portion of the resources they had reaped to the Pharaoh. He or she would in turn use it for the well-being of Egyptian society. The Nile was a source of spiritual dimension. The Nile was so significant to the lifestyle of the Egyptians, that they created a god dedicated to the welfare of the Nile’s annual inundation . The god’s name was Hapi, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding of the Nile River. Also, the Nile was considered as a causeway from life to death and afterlife.

The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra, the sun , underwent birth, death, and resurrection each time he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were located west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they must be buried on the side that symbolized death. The Greek historian, Herodotus , wrote that ‘Egypt was the gift of the Nile’, and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years. That far-reaching trade has been carried on along the Nile since ancient times can be seen from the Ishango bone , possibly the earliest known indication of Ancient Egyptian multiplication, which was discovered along the headwaters of the Nile River (near Lake Edward , in northeastern Congo ) and was carbon-dated to 20,000 BC.

Modern achievements The Nile passes through Cairo, Egypt's capital city The White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendri Coetzee, became the first to navigate the Nile's entire length. The expedition took off from the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, 4 months and 2 weeks later. National Geographic released a feature film about the expedition towards in late 2005 entitled The Longest River. On April 28, 2004 , geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean . Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film " Mystery of the Nile", and in a book of the same title.

The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005 when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power. A team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee on 30 April 2005, became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the remote source of the Nile, the Akagera river, which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda. On March 31, 2006, three explorers from Britain and New Zealand lead by Neil McGrigor claimed to have been the first to travel the river from its mouth to a new "true source" deep in Rwanda's Nyungwe rainforest. . Crossings This is a list of crossings from Khartoum to the Mediterranean : Aswan Bridge, Aswan Blue Nile - World Afropedia Blue Nile Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127.

Map of the Blue Nile Confluence of Blue and White Nile near Khartoum The Blue Nile ( Amharic : ዓባይLua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. ? ; transliterated: ʿAbbai, but pronounced Abbai, Arabic : النيل الأزرقLua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127.‎ An Nīl al Āzraq) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia . With the White Nile , the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile . The upper reaches of the river is called the Abbay in Ethiopia, where it is considered holy by many, and is believed to be the River Gihon mentioned as flowing out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. [1] Contents 6 External links Course According to materials published by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency , the Blue Nile has a total length of Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127., of which Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. are inside Ethiopia.

[2] The Blue Nile flows generally south from Lake Tana and then west across Ethiopia and northwest into Sudan. Within Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. of its source at Lake Tana, the river enters a canyon about Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. long. This gorge is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half. The power of the Blue Nile may best be appreciated at Tis Issat Falls , which are Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. high, located about Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. downstream of Lake Tana. Although there are several feeder streams that flow into Lake Tana, the sacred source of the river is generally considered to be a small spring at Gish Abbai at an altitude of approximately Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127.. This stream, known as the Lesser Abay , flows north into Lake Tana .

Other affluents of this lake include, in clockwise order from Gorgora , the Magech , the Northern Gumara, the Reb , the Southern Gumara and the Kilte. [3] Lake Tana's outflow then flows some 30 kilometres before plunging over the Tis Issat Falls. The river then loops across northwest Ethiopia through a series of deep valleys and canyons into Sudan, by which point it is only known as the Blue Nile. There are numerous tributaries of the Abay between Lake Tana and the Sudanese border. Those on its left bank, in downstream order, include the Wanqa River, the Bashilo River , the Walaqa River , the Wanchet River , the Jamma River , the Muger River , the Guder River , the Agwel River, the Nedi River, the Didessa River and the Dabus River . Those on the right side, also in downstream order, include the Handassa, Tul, Abaya, Sade, Tammi, Cha, Shita, Suha, Muga , Gulla River , Temcha , Bachat, Katlan, Jiba, Chamoga, Weter and the Beles .

[3] After flowing past Er Roseires inside Sudan, and receiving the Dinder on its right bank at Dinder , the Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum and, as the River Nile , flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria . The Blue Nile is so-called because during flood times the water current is so high, it changes colour to an almost black; since in the local Sudanese language the word for black is also used for the colour blue. The distance from its source to its confluence is variously reported as 1,460 and 1,600 kilometres (907 and 1,000 miles). The uncertainty over its length might partially result from the fact that it flows through a virtually impenetrable gorges cut in the Ethiopian Highlands to a depth of some Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127.—a depth comparable to that of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the United States . Water flow The flow of the Blue Nile reaches maximum volume in the rainy season (from June to September), when it supplies about two thirds of the water of the Nile proper.

The Blue Nile, along with that of the Atbara River to the north, which also flows out of the Ethiopian Highlands, were responsible for the annual Nile floods that contributed to the fertility of the Nile Valley and the consequent rise of ancient Egyptian civilization and Egyptian Mythology . With the completion in 1970 of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, the Nile floods ended. The Blue Nile is vital to the livelihood of Egypt . Though shorter than the White Nile, 59% of the water that reaches Egypt originates from the Blue Nile branch of the great river; when combined with the Atbara River , which also has its source in the Ethiopian Highlands , the figure rises to 90% of the water and 96% of transported sediment . The river is also an important resource for Sudan, where the Roseires and Sennar dams produce 80% of the country's power. These dams also help irrigate the Gezira Plain , which is most famous for its high quality cotton . The region also produces wheat and animal feed crops.

European exploration Men pull each other across Blue Nile River by rope prior to Bridges to Prosperity building a new bridge The first European to have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the river's source was Pedro Paez , a Spanish Jesuit who reached the river's source 21 April 1613. [4] Nevertheless the Portuguese João Bermudes, the self-described Patriarch of Ethiopia, provided the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his memoirs (published in 1565), and a number of Europeans who lived in Ethiopia in the late 15th century like Pêro da Covilhã could have seen the river long before Paez, but not reached its places of source. The source of the Blue Nile was also reached in 1629 by the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Jerónimo Lobo and in 1770 by James Bruce . Although a number of European explorers contemplated tracing the course of the Blue Nile from its confluence with the White Nile to Lake Tana, its gorge, which begins a few miles inside the Ethiopian border, has discouraged all attempts since Frédéric Cailliaud 's attempt in 1821.

The first serious attempt by a non-local to explore this reach of the river was undertaken by the American W.W. Macmillan in 1902, assisted by the Norwegian explorer B.H. Jenssen; Jenssen would proceed upriver from Khartoum while Macmillan sailed downstream from Lake Tana. However, Jenssen's boats were blocked by the rapids at Famaka short of the Sudan-Ethiopian border, and Macmillan's boats were wrecked shortly after they had been launched. Macmillan encouraged Jenssen to try to sail upstream from Khartoum again in 1905, but he was forced to stop 300 miles short of Lake Tana. [5] Consul Cheesman, who records his surprise on arriving in Ethiopia at finding that the upper waters of "one of the most famous of the rivers of the world, and one whose name was well known to the ancients" was in his lifetime "marked on the map by dotted lines", managed to map the upper course of the Blue Nile between 1925–1933.

He did this not by following the river along its banks and through its impassable canyon, but following it from the highlands above, travelling some Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127. by mule in the adjacent country. [6] New Blue Nile River suspended bridge completed in 2009 by Bridges to Prosperity serves over 250,000 Ethiopians. It is the only pedestrian cable bridge over the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. In 1968 at the request of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, a team of 60 British and Ethiopian servicemen and scientists made the first descent of the Blue Nile from Lake Tana to a point near the Sudan border led by the eminent explorer Captain (now Colonel) John Blashford-Snell . [7] The team used specially built Avon inflatables and modified Royal Engineer Assault boats to navigate the formidable rapids. This expedition made many important scientific discoveriesLua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 127.. They also had to fight off two attacks by bandits.

In 1999, writer Virginia Morell [1] and photographer Nevada Wier made the journey by raft from Lake Tana to the Sudan, afterwards publishing a documentary about their journey. [8] In 2000, American and National Geographic reader, Kenneth Frantz, saw a photo take by Nevada Wier for National Geographic which would lead him to found the charity Bridges to Prosperity . This photo showed a bridge broken during World War II, with 10 men on either side of the broken span pulling each other across the dangerous gap by rope. This historic bridge was built by Emperor Fasilides of Ethiopia in approximately 1660 with Roman bridge technology brought to Ethiopia by Portuguese soldiers during the battle with the Muslim invaders in 1507. [9] In both 2001 and 2009, Bridges to Prosperity volunteers would travel from the USA to Ethiopia to repair the broken bridge across the Blue Nile river, and later build a new cable suspended span not susceptible to flood. Bridges to Prosperity has now built over 93 footbridges in 13 countries.

[10] On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown, became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film Mystery of the Nile and in a book of the same title. [11] Despite this attempt, the team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005, when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea , that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power from source to sea. See also The Blue and The White Nile - The Nile River The Nile River The Blue and The White Nile Picture from the book "The White Nile" by Alan Moorehead Button Text The Nile River has two major branches, the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Both branches are named for the color of their water.

The Blue Nile is a bright blue at its source, and begins to darken when it reaches the Sudan, while the White Nile’s water is a whitish-gray (Hoyt, 2008). The White Nile is longer and travels through Egypt, Uganda, and meets the Blue Nile in the Sudan. Though the Blue Nile is shorter than the White, it supplies most of the water, beginning in Ethiopia and flowing until it meets the White Nile in the Sudan. The two branches of the Nile snake through the countries of Rwanda, Tanzania, Egypt, Ethiopia, Burundi, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda (Tignor, 2010). –Tignor writes that the Blue Nile is the critical source of 4/7 of the river’s capacity, much of it during the flood season, while the White Nile provides Egypt with a critical, stable source of water year-round (2010). Create a free website

Question: In which country is the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile?
Answer: Sudan